The idea of God is treated as fact today. A lot of people see God as a discrete personality; God is a creator in the same way as you or I create something. In the 17th century in the West and during the Enlightenment, scientists and philosophers such as Isaac Newton and René Descartes believed that they could prove God's existence scientifically. They said science was the best path to all truth. The other ways of coming to truth, such as art or mysticism or ritual, were downplayed. God became a fact, pure and simple. Theologians like St. Thomas Aquinas have said that God doesn't exist like you or me or this chair. They said you couldn't say God exists because exist is too limited a word. - Karen Armstrong

Could you imagine if Science used phrases like "you can't say DNA exits, because exist is too limited a word"?

If there was ever a phrase that so obviously shows the inane meaningless blabber that is religion, it's that bullshit explanation that Armstrong digs out of the moronic Aquinas files.

Remember....you aren't reading this blog. It exists, but you don't understand the word exist. Or the word Blog.

Christopher Hitchens: Merry Christmas. Now, about that public display ...Full Story Here

None of the four gospels gives any notion of what time of year the supposed Nativity occurred. Only two gospels mention the virginity of Mary, and only one has any mention of a "manger." Wise men and shepherds are likewise very unevenly distributed throughout the discrepant accounts. So that the placement of a crèche surrounded by a motley crew of humans and animals has no more scriptural warrant than does "The Life of Brian." Moreover, the erection of this exhibit near the turn of the year is actually a placation of the old Norse gods of the winter solstice.

Cecil Bothwell was voted to the position of city councilman in Ashville, North Carolina, last month, but his opponents claim he is ineligible to serve public office.

Why? Because Bothwell is an atheist.

“I'm not saying that Cecil Bothwell is not a good man, but if he's an atheist, he's not eligible to serve in public office, according to the state constitution,” said H.K. Edgerton, a former Asheville NAACP president. Read the article this quote came from.

Article 6, section 8 of the North Carolina constitution says: The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.

A 1961 Supreme Court decision, however, ruled any kind of religious test for public office is unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution overrides any state constitution.

Bothwell, an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Church, claims "the question of whether or not God exists is not particularly interesting to me and it's certainly not relevant to public office."

He was sworn into office on Monday using an oath excluding the phrase Almighty God, which upset Edgerton.

"My father was a Baptist minister. I'm a Christian man. I have problems with people who don't believe in God," he said.

"If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as menservants do. If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money."